


The Hell That Is The Strawberry Festival

by vox_vocis



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, F/F, Heroes of Olympus, HoO - Freeform, Mortal AU, PJO, Pipeyna - Freeform, strawberries and fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-04-22 14:38:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4839164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vox_vocis/pseuds/vox_vocis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Your love of strawberry shortcake really doesn’t match your appearance but it’s really cute” AU<br/>An AU that I wrote for my best friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hell That Is The Strawberry Festival

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Katelyn My Love](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Katelyn+My+Love).



> This is the first think I am posting on this website. Probably shouldn't post the thing I wrote in under and hour at 10:00 pm. Oh well.

If there was one thing Reyna Ramírez-Arellano was not, it was religious. 

She wasn’t sure if it was the bad experiences with over-strict religious school teachers, the mandatory Sunday church with her father and her older sister Hylla every week, or just a very firm belief in evolution, but over the years Reyna had developed very strong Atheist beliefs. She believed in science, in hard fact, in what could be proven, and nothing more. There was no higher power, no Heaven or Hell, no angels in the clouds, according to her.

But according to her father, God was very real and very powerful. And, as her father said, would not hesitate to send a lesbian like her straight to Hell. Which, if there were other lesbians, she figured, wouldn’t be so bad.

But apparently Hell was much worse than she’d ever imagined.

Hell in the form of volunteering at the Saint Mary’s Catholic Church Annual Strawberry Festival.

In all of her seventeen years of attending the Strawberry Festival, Reyna had never managed to draw the connection between God and strawberries, aside from the fact that he’d allegedly created them. But as bad as being dragged to the festival every year was, helping serve the famous strawberry shortcake to the citizens of Jupiter, California as punishment from her father was even worse. 

She hated every part of that year’s festival with a burning passion. She hated the hairnet she was forced to wear, and the gloves that left deposits of white powder all over her hands. She hated pulling apart styrofoam bowls to hand to people at the beginning of the line. And she hated the looks she got from every person in line, the withering glares and sympathetic smiles from everyone who had heard the news of the infamous town homosexual. Yes, Jupiter was not very progressive for California.

Just as she was thinking of ways to slip out without being noticed, a girl Reyna recognized from school got in line. Piper, she recalled. With her several ear piercings, the feathers and beads braided into her hair, and her tight black top and shorts that were far above the school-approved fingertip length, covered by an oversized flannel, she was the last person Reyna expected to see at a church function (aside from Reyna herself). 

And yet there she was, standing in front of Reyna, staring at her with those kaleidoscope eyes, and it takes her a full minute to remember to actually hand Piper the bowl. She smirks, lip piercing quirking up as she moves down the line, accepting a biscuit from the pastor’s son, then continuing on to get the rest of her shortcake fixings.

The pastor’s son, a boy by the name of Jason Grace, with whom Reyna had gotten incredibly close to over the years, and had even pretended to date before finally coming out, observed her with an amused look in his eye as she watched the Piper sit down at a picnic table.

“What?” Reyna asked when she realized Jason was looking at her.

“Nothing,” Jason said, feigning innocence.

Reyna watched as Piper took a few bites of her strawberry shortcake, and felt a smile tug at her lips when she heard the girl’s delighted squeal. 

“She’s cute, isn’t she?” Jason’s tone was far too knowing for Reyna’s comfort.

“I guess.” Although she tried to keep her tone even, she knew that the blush rapidly filling her cheeks gave her away.

A few minutes later, the girl was back. Even though she still had a bowl, she made a point of throwing her first one out before coming up to Reyna for a second one.

“You know, that’s really not good for the planet,” Reyna commented as she handed Piper a bowl.

Piper merely shrugged before moving on to get her biscuit.

By the third bowl of shortcake, Reyna was prepared. Having scrawled something on the bottom with a pen Jason luckily happened to have in the giant pockets that unfairly only come in boy pants, she handed the new bowl to Piper.

She watched her intently as she ate the third serving of shortcake, then made her way over to the trashcan. But before she could throw it out, she must have noticed the phone number written on the bottom, because instead of tossing it like she had the others, she cleaned it with napkins and stuck it into the large purse she carried. 

Reyna watched as Piper made her way down the street, a small smile on her face. Maybe the Strawberry Festival wasn’t the Hell she’d thought it was.


End file.
